Money, people had been working for it most of their lives. True, Isn't it? I know all of us need money, especially on the daily basis. We need food to eat, water to drink, electricity to light up our homes, to run the fan to lessen the heat, loads to communicate and so many things that we needed money.
After graduating college, I opted to land a job, but due to my lack of experience, I had an OJT on a piggery farm. Well, I could say it to be on-the-job training because at first, my labor was free. after two months, I was given a salary, no just allowance of 125 pesos per day considering the minimum pay of that year is almost 300 pesos. I enjoyed my job and fell in love with it. It was never much, I only have money enough to buy my needs and give some for rice as my contribution for the whole family. I never made a move in finding another job because the manager has been so good to me, Miss Rona who recommended me and now I have my work.
My work on the piggery farm is tiring. There are 300 sows, handful of piglets and lots of grower and finisher stages of pigs. Tending to the sows, Making sure they eat a lot, and assuring the cleanliness of their pens. its a pretty tiring job but pigs are fun to be with, for they are so silly.
Years went by, my manager decided o apply and got the job at Mega Farm, then later, she invited me and I got the job too. When I first came, my salary was around 285 pesos. then after few years, it pumped up to 327 pesos. The job was easy though, you just have to sit there and communicate, and write few things. But sometimes it's stressfull. Saying the job was easy doesn't mean it's tiring, right?
Sometimes at work, I get bored a lot, then an idea came to me. I searched the internet about "gantsilyo" which later I knew its English word crochet. I already had a notebook yarn at home and a small crochet hook so I brought it to work where I could see the tutorials ad follow them step by step. There, I developed my skills in crochet and later I asked my husband to buy me materials. It then became a hobby since I memorized some of the stitches and did simple projects using simple patterns. Due to my love of crochet, it then became a business. Co-workers are ordering coin purses and hats/bonnets and some ask me to do them cellphone pouches. Crocheting is a good way to earn money, you just sit there and hold yarn and hook but it's still tiring eh, you tire your eyes a lot, and when you have a mistake, you undo everything and redo it all again, such a frustrating event in crochet. Accepting made to orders is another thing, you will be pressured of the client will make follow-up on his order and you have to make it faster even if it means that you have to sacrifice your sleep just to finish the project. Some clients make orders but will cancel later too. They never know the efforts made for their orders but they will not know it because it was not them in your shoes. This is the scenario over my four years of crochet.
Scrolling on a social media platform(Facebook), I saw advertisements about apps and games that can earn money. I tried almost all of it but the ending is only disappointment. I tried YouTube but I could not find an interesting video to post, Kumu app needs strong internet connection to start a live video, money well apps need to be played, to be spent a lot of time. Some apps and sites I could not even remember. Then on May 2021, I saw the post of my mentor, she is also a crocheter and I met her I Facebook. I forgot what she posted but all I remember is that I asked her how. Then everything came in an instant. I remembered signing up for all the sites and links she sent me. I even asked her how and what to do, good thing she is so patient with me. read.cash and noise.cash are one of the few sites that I signed up too, but even with these sites, you still have to work hard to earn money. At first, I was stressed, I was overwhelmed, and the ideas that I have in mind would not come out, sometime I don't know what to do anymore. Thanks to God, as time went by, I cooled down and everything now is a little smoother. I understand a little how things work but I know I still have a lot to learn.
As I get older, the work that is made physically or virtually (i don't know I named it right) money is hard to earn, and giving justice to the title: There is no such thing as easy money.
lead image from futurity.org